Make sure that your goals are achievable by laying out a plan for how you can achieve them. For example, if trying to save money, clarify how you will take action- through going out to eat less, buying fewer clothes, taking advantage of sales, etc. By narrowing down how you reach your goal, you will help keep yourself on track and avoid distractions.
Another important part of sticking to your resolution is setting a realistic timeline. For instance, if your goal is to get in better shape, maybe you will attempt to improve your mile time by five seconds in six months, and ten seconds in twelve months.
BONUS TIP: Using numerical data will help your mind process your goals, and will help keep you motivated to improve.
When keeping a resolution, loss of motivation is bound to happen. When something falls out of place, it is important to have a motivator to fall back on. This could be weekly progress photos taken at the gym, writing samples taken over the course of time, or a spreadsheet of economic activity. By keeping track of your progress you will remember why the resolution is so important to you in the first place.
A resolution may be small, fun, or exciting, but one thing it is not known for is being easy. It is important to remain patient. If you want to give up, remember how far you’ve come and how far you could be by this time next year. However, if you overestimate your power, it is equally important to know how to modify your goal- maybe instead of aiming for six days of working out, you aim for five because you know you’ll be too busy. It is important to be realistic and take the goal one step at a time because if not, it will feel overwhelming and unmanageable.
Another core aspect of keeping resolutions is accountability. You and a friend could send each other motivational texts or even become in-person work out buddies. While each person has a reminder to stay on track this way, the results benefit both you and a friend.
Rachel is a BBG from Moreshet Ma'arav BBG and is Editor-in-Chief of her high school newspaper.
All views expressed on content written for The Shofar represent the opinions and thoughts of the individual authors. The author biography represents the author at the time in which they were in BBYO.